The local athletes honored were Jan Arnold Aquino of Bayonne; basketball standout Kelela Blake of Ferris; Allison Gill of Holy Family Academy; tennis star Alexis Dabu of County Prep; Luz Tirado of Lincoln; baseball standout Nelson Maldonado of St. Mary of Jersey City; track standout Ryan Shea of Secaucus (who will be the valedictorian of his class in the coming days); basketball and softball standout Cristina Centeno of Marist; McNair Academic's Eva Morozko; Kristen Hamue of St. Joseph of the Palisades; basketball standout Justin Sanchez of Union Hill and multi-sport whirlwind Natacha Jaramillo of Weehawken.
It's great that the NJSIAA takes the time to honor the athletes who also excel in the classroom, bringing them all together for the luncheon. It's one thing for athletes to hit the game-winning homer or make the clutch jump shot. It's another for them to do so well with their academics and the NJSIAA deserves credit for bringing the top student-athletes together for the awards presentation...
Speaking of Maldonado, he will get the ball for the Ramblers as they move on in the NJSIAA Non-Public B North playoffs against Montclair Kimberley in the sectional semifinals.
It might be a little difficult for Maldonado to toil again, after the Ramblers lost nearly two weeks ago to Hoboken in the HCIAA Seglio Division title game. But Maldonado has the right stuff to lead the Ramblers to the sectional title game, more than likely against state-ranked Morristown-Beard Tuesday...
Another of the top scholar-athletes was Sanchez, who gave a verbal commitment to Stevens Tech, but may change his mind now that head coach Josh Loeffler has resigned his position to take an assistant coaching job at Lafayette College. Sanchez could very well end up at Catholic University, which was also heavily recruiting the talented Hiller guard...
It looks more and more like St. Peter's Prep and Bayonne facing each other in volleyball for a fourth time this season. The two Hudson County powers met twice in the regular season, then played for the HCIAA title two weeks ago (won by Bayonne) and now have advanced to the NJSIAA North sectional semifinals. Prep will face Fair Lawn, and Bayonne will battle Vernon in the semifinals.
The state sectional final is slated for Tuesday, so it appears that the two rivals are on a collision course for a fourth showdown this year...
The Union City Board of Education was slated to meet after press time Thursday night to determine who will be the new head basketball and baseball coaches as Emerson and Union Hill merge in the fall to become Union City High School.
Word has it that the boys' basketball coach will be Drew Morano and the baseball coach will be Frank Clark, both of whom coached their respective sports at Emerson. Joe Rotondi was previously named as the football coach at Union City High.
While Morano and Clark are excellent coaches, it's a shame that good coaches and people like Union Hill's coaches Carlos Cueto and Chip Benway get left holding the bag. Cueto and Benway will both land on their feet somewhere, but it's a shame that it's not going to be at the new Union City High. It's a shame that there have to be losers in this school merger...
Just for curiosity sake, if Caven Point Cochrane Stadium, closed since April when it was found to have significant lead contamination in the soil, is scheduled to be re-opened by September 1 as the Jersey City Board of Education claims, shouldn't there be work going on to remunerate that tainted soil right now? Nothing has been done at all at the site, leading one to believe that the renovations to the facility will seemingly not be completed by the first kickoff of football in the fall...
The bad news about former Prep two-sport standout and former Hudson Reporter Male Athlete of the Year Mike Brown continues. The Richmond Times reported last week that Brown had been arrested for DUI, this on the heels of his arrest three months ago for possession of stolen property and attempting to sell the stolen music equipment on the internet site eBay.
Brown was arrested April 24 in Virginia on charges of DUI and refusal to take a breathalyzer test. He's due in Charlottesville court June 26 on those charges. This week, Brown will appear to face the felony charges in the stolen property charges, as well as a misdemeanor for marijuana possession.
It's just another chapter in what has become a horrible tale involving one of the best athletes to ever come out of Hudson County... - Jim Hague
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